Renwick Taylor
1898-1967

Fractured light and brilliant color define the works of Renwick Taylor, a recently rediscovered New York artist from the 1920s and 1930s. Although Taylor began painting scenery for the theater and film, his career in the fine arts took off while he was studying at the National Academy of Design; he won their coveted Pulitzer Scholarship for a year of study abroad in 1925, awarding him $1,500.

Perhaps even more seminal to the development of his style was Taylor’s residence over several summers at Louis Comfort Tiffany’s renowned art colony at his magnificent home and estate – Laurelton Hall – on the shore of Oyster Bay, Long Island.  There, Taylor and other ‘fellows,’ such as Luigi Lucioni and Paul Cadmus, were given residence and board. For several months they were encouraged to soak up inspiration from the landscape, nature, and the stunning botanical and interior environments Tiffany had created. Taylor’s paintings such as Steps at Laurelton Hall, Tents on the Beach, and The Bay reveal his deep immersion in this experience.  Blocks of color, laid down thickly with a brush or palette knife, are punctuated by charged highlights in bright reds, crisp whites, and variegated blues.  Through these colored prisms, light scintillates in a manner, ultimately, akin to Tiffany’s stained glass. Woman in Yellow, displays a similar dappled paint application, while the quick, short strokes visible in Pelham Bay, NY, demonstrate Taylor’s technical experimentation and mastery.  Every Taylor composition is saturated with radiant hues and luminosity.